A brilliant Rhodes Scholar and lawyer began his rise through Canadian political history on this date in 1978 with his first election to the House of Commons. I speak, of course, of Bob Rae, one of the great political orators of his generation.Mr. Rae was to play a key role from the opposition benches in the defeat of the fledgling minority government led by Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark.He left federal politics in 1982 and successfully sought the leadership of Ontario’s NDP. Eight years later he would make history, leading the NDP to their first and so far, only victory in an Ontario election.In 2001, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada; in 2015, he was named a Companion of the Order of Canada.In 2008, Mr. Rae returned to the House of Commons, this time as a Liberal MP for Toronto Centre and later served with distinction as interim leader of his new party.Since 2020, he has served as Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations, a post once held by his distinguished late father, Saul Rae.Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.